ISSUES
IN THE NEGOTIATING PROCESS
Land use, land-use change and forestry under the Kyoto Protocol: Carbon "sinks"

Background

Under the Kyoto Protocol, certain human-induced activities in the land-use,
land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector that remove greenhouse gases from
the atmosphere (known as carbon "sinks"), namely afforestation, reforestation
and tackling deforestation, may be used by Annex I Parties to offset their emission
targets. Conversely, changes in these activities that deplete carbon "sinks" (e.g.
an increase in deforestation) will be subtracted from the amount of emissions
that an Annex I Party may emit over its commitment period (Article 3.3). In addition,
Article 3.4 of the Kyoto Protocol states that additional human-induced activities
in the agricultural soils and LULUCF categories may be added to the three already
counted under the Protocol, subject to certain conditions.

A number of issues, however, remained unresolved in the Kyoto Protocol and
have been the subject of continuing negotiations since its adoption in order to
develop recommendations to the COP serving as the meeting of the Parties to the
Kyoto Protocol at its first session (COP/MOP 1). These outstanding issues include
the elaboration of agreed definitions for "afforestation", "reforestation"
and "deforestation", and the criteria that should be applied under Article
3.4 for including new activities in the scope of the Protocol, and which activities
should be selected.

Given the particular complexity and scientific uncertainty surrounding the
LULUCF sector, the IPCC agreed, following a request from SBSTA 8 (June 1998),
to prepare a Special Report on this issue.

At COP 4 (Buenos Aires, November 1998), Parties agreed to recommend
decisions for COP/MOP 1 on the questions of definitions under Article 3.3 and
additional activities under Article 3.4, and to do so after the IPCC Special Report
had been completed and considered by the SBSTA. At COP 5 (Bonn, October/November
1999), Parties endorsed a work programme and decision-making framework on LULUCF
to enable these draft decisions to be adopted by COP 6 (The Hague, November 2000).
As part of the negotiations, the SBSTA invited Parties to submit country specific
data and information on the LULUCF sector according to a standard format agreed
at SBSTA 12 (June 2000). Work has also continued inter-sessionally, with several
SBSTA workshopsconvened on LULUCF.

Parties failed to reach agreement on LULUCF at COP 6 in The Hague, as part
of a package of decisions under the "Buenos Aires Plan of Action", and
negotiating texts on the issue, along with those on other issues, were forwarded
to a resumed session of COP 6 for further consideration.

Latest developments

At COP 6 part II (Bonn, July 2001), Parties adopted the
Bonn Agreements on the Implementation of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action,
registering political agreement on key issues, including on LULUCF. Parties did
not, however, complete their work on a detailed decision on LULUCF based on the
Bonn Agreements, and the draft text of the decision was referred to COP 7 (Marrakesh,
October/November 2001).

The Bonn Agreements set out a number of principles to govern
the treatment of LULUCF activities under the Kyoto Protocol, and also register
agreement on definitions of "forest", "afforestation", "reforestation"
and "deforestation". The Agreements also stipulate that "forest
management", "cropland management", "grazing land management"
and "revegetation" are eligible activities under Article 3.4 subject
to certain conditions and accounting rules, including an individual cap, listed
in a table, on the amount of credit that each Party may claim from forest management.
In addition, the Bonn Agreements confirm that only afforestation and reforestation
are eligible for projects under the clean development
mechanism.

The outstanding problems that surround the issue of LULUCF and
prevented the completion of work on a detailed decision at COP 6 part II concern
mostly the individual caps listed in the table, including their level and whether
they can be reconsidered prior to the beginning of the first commitment period.
The Russian Federation put forward a proposal
on this issue, which is recorded in a footnote to the draft text forwarded
to COP 7.

Next steps

Negotiations on LULUCF will continue at COP 7, in order to reach agreement
and adopt a decision at that session, including recommendations for COP/MOP 1.

The information that the IPCC will provide to SBSTA 15 (meeting
together with COP 7) on the development of good practice
guidancefor the LULUCF sector is also relevant
to this item.